What to Check Before Connecting Any Tool to Your Google Ads Account

Connecting a third-party tool to your Google Ads account means handing over some level of access to a live, spending account. That’s a reasonable thing to be careful about — and most people aren’t sure exactly what to check before doing it. Here’s a practical list.

1. Is it using official Google OAuth, or asking for your password?

Any legitimate tool connects through Google’s own OAuth flow — you’re redirected to a Google-owned login screen, you approve specific permissions, and the tool never sees your actual password. If a tool asks you to type your Google Ads username and password directly into its own site, that’s a red flag on its own.

2. What permissions is it actually requesting?

Google’s OAuth screen tells you exactly what access you’re granting — read-only, or read and write. A reporting-only tool has no reason to request write access. A tool that proposes changes needs write access to eventually apply them, but that’s different from applying changes automatically without asking. Read the permission screen; don’t just click through it.

3. Can changes happen without your approval?

This is the most important operational question. Some tools apply changes automatically based on rules you set once and then forget about. Others surface a recommendation and wait for a human decision before anything touches the account. Neither approach is inherently wrong, but you should know which one you’re getting — automatic changes to a live spending account deserve a higher bar of trust than most tools have actually earned.

4. Is there a record of what changed and why?

If a tool makes or proposes a change, can you see it later — what changed, when, and the reasoning behind it? A tool with no change history is asking you to trust it blindly. A tool with a full audit trail is giving you the ability to verify it, which is a meaningfully different level of trust.

5. Can you revoke access in one place, at any time?

Google’s own account permissions page (myaccount.google.com/permissions) lists every third-party app with access to your account and lets you revoke it instantly. Any tool worth using should be comfortable with the fact that you can disconnect it in a few clicks, with no call to support required.

The short version

Official OAuth, clearly scoped permissions, approval required before changes apply, a visible audit trail, and one-click revocation — that’s a reasonable bar to hold any tool to before connecting it to an account that spends real money every day.